Tim Stanley, Author at Catholic Herald

Tim Stanley

Television: RIP Doctor Who (1963-2017)

January 04, 2018

This Christmas we said goodbye to an old friend. Doctor Who, who was born in 1963, started life as an Edwardian gentleman. He left this world as a woman from Yorkshire. Let us now call this series “Intersectional Medic in Space”, and bury it in cement. To be clear: as a lifelong fan of Doctor

Television: The playwright who grasped Original Sin

December 07, 2017

A critic once wrote that Joe Orton, the Sixties playwright, would “rub baby oil into his face until it gleamed. He took similar pains with his dialogue, and it glitters.” In Ruffian on the Stair, a character admits to an incestuous relationship with his brother, and the man hearing his confession spits: “There’s no word

Television: What next – a witch marrying a Dalek?

November 30, 2017

Are there any boring people left? I know, I know: we’ve all got talents and skeletons hidden somewhere. But when I measure my life against the people on TV, I feel about as bohemian as Norma Major. As the drama Love, Lies and Records (BBC One, Thursdays, 9pm) is set in a register office, I

Television: No prejudice at Tesco – but no Jesus either

November 23, 2017

Christmas is several weeks away, which in high street years means it’s practically tomorrow night – so the decorations are up, the gifts are on sale and the stores are churning out commercials. Tesco’s effort features a succession of families preparing for Christmas dinner – straight, gay, Muslim – diverse but for the desire to

Television: Such a chivalric first date, I nearly cried

November 16, 2017

Channel 4 broadcasts First Dates (Mondays, 9pm) in an age of sexual uncertainty, when no one wants to be accused of doing the wrong thing. This might be the last series in which the dates don’t sit either side of a glass window, communicating, like prison visitors, by telephone. There seem to be two types

Television: A strange series worth ruining your life for

November 09, 2017

How was your Halloween? This year I decided to join in and buy a big box of sweets and put a Jack-o’-lantern on my doorstep. The pumpkin was a mistake: the doorbell rang so many times that after half an hour I was down to just two boiled sweets and an apple. I picked up

Television: Party girls said more prayers than I did

November 02, 2017

I stayed in a monastery once and could barely keep my eyes open. Blame it on the serenity, but I hit the sack when I arrived and hardly left it. I made a game effort to attend morning prayers at something silly like 6am. Afterwards, the monk in charge of guests came up to my

Television: The ‘fun’ dad who wrecked his family

October 26, 2017

Remember when you were a kid and it always seemed like other kids had it better? If I’d gone to the Shanks family’s house for tea, I probably would’ve refused to go home. Paul and Vikie Shanks, a cabaret singer and a model, bought a big patch of land near Coventry and raised their seven

Television: The BBC’s nod to persecuted Catholics

October 19, 2017

Gunpowder (BBC One, Saturdays, 9pm) tells the story of the infamous plot to blow up Parliament in 1605, an act of religious terrorism that is, understandably, reviled in English memory. But the first episode of this three-parter is dedicated to historical context: the vicious persecution of Catholics. In the opening scene, a fanatical priest-hunter arrives

Television: Filming the war that broke America’s heart

October 12, 2017

When we ask why the Sixties happened – the riots, the drugs, nuns marrying monks – one of the answers is Vietnam. The war in south-east Asia was such a colossal mistake built on so hideous a lie that it shattered the West’s claim to moral authority. It weakened respect for the US presidency, elders

Television: Does black comedy have to be this bitter?

October 05, 2017

The X Factor is back and you can guess the profile of the contestants without having to watch. Northern lass who writes her own songs. Breakdancing boy band (for whom this is very much the last roll of the dice). And a plumber from Essex with a loopy gran. It’s not a contest in the

The trouble with Philip K Dick on TV

September 28, 2017

I do love Philip K Dick, which is why I’m worried that Channel 4’s new series based on his short stories might put people off him. The problem is this: too many people think Dick, being a sci-fi writer, is just about ideas. He does have good ideas, the best ideas, as Donald Trump would

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